Nokia maintains 10% handset growth forecast
Mobile phone sales rose by 1% year-on-year, within previously stated guidance, reaching EUR 5.5 billion. Strong sales growth in Europe was virtually offset by somewhat slower sales in Asia Pacific and substantially weaker sales in the Americas.
Jorma Ollila, chairman and CEO, estimated that mobile phone sales were approximately 98 million units for the first quarter of 2003, a 10% rise year-on-year. "Nokia s own volumes grew by 13% to around 38 million units, marking faster-than-market growth.," he said. Nokia believes it had a 38% share of the handset market in the March 2003 quarter.
"Backed by Nokia s broad and competitive product range, including a growing share of compelling color and multimedia models, second-quarter sales for Nokia Mobile Phones are expected to grow between 4% and 12% year on year, and by somewhat less for the group."
Handset shipments
Nokia estimates that in the second of quarter 2003, the overall global handset market is expected to grow both sequentially and year-on-year. Full-year 2003 global handset volume is expected to grow by approximately 10% to around 445 million units, compared with 405 million units in 2002.
Gartner Dataquest has put the number of handset shipments in 2002 at 423.4 million units.
Earlier this week, Motorola said it expects global handset shipments to reach a total of 430 million units in 2003, at the low end of its previous range of 430-440 to 440 million.
Network infrastructure
"In the network infrastructure business we do not expect market conditions to improve during the year," said Ollila. "Operator investment has decreased to an exceptionally low level, and in some cases network rollouts have slowed. Nokia now expects the overall network infrastructure market and its own accessible market to decline by 15% or more in 2003."
